Lithuania’s Foreign Minister calls on Japanese business giants to cooperate
On 10 May, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius held meetings in Tokyo and highlighted the opening of new opportunities to expand economic cooperation between Lithuania and Japan.
In a meeting with the Chief Executive Officer and President of JTB Hiromi Tagawa, who is also the Chairman of Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA), the interlocutors highlighted that, despite the geographical distance, Lithuania and Japan were closely linked and enjoyed cultural proximity. Moreover, the countries share their historical heritage of Chiune Sugihara, which also today contributes to the development of our bilateral relationship, especially in the field of tourism. Linkevičius noted that the coming of Lithuanian-developed technology, such as WiderFi, to the ‘Land of the Rising Sun’ enabled the two countries to cooperate on innovation and to develop tourism products for travellers, who belong to a new generation of multimedia technology users.
Lithuania’s Foreign Minister met with the Director and Executive Vice President of NTT Data Kazuhiro Nishihata and with the Senior Vice President of NTT Communications Corporation Takanobu Maeda. Linkevičius invited them to come to Lithuania and acquaint themselves with the excellent conditions for business development in this country. “Lithuania is a world leader with its information and communications technology (ICT) services to business and the most advanced Internet infrastructure. The quality of our services in this industry is one of the best in the European Union. We hope that from now on we will actively cooperate in the field of ICT, and not only in Japan”, said the head of Lithuania’s diplomacy.
In 2016, 22.7 thousand Japanese tourists visited Lithuania, which is 7.4 percent more than in 2015. 15 thousand of these tourists visited Kaunas, where the Sugihara House is located. Over the last 5 years, the number of Japanese tourists has been more than doubled. In 2012, 9.5 thousand Japanese tourists visited Lithuania.
NTT Data, NTT Communications and NTT Docomo are NTT Group companies. On 9 May, the head of Lithuania’s diplomacy met with representatives of NTT Docomo. The Japanese NTT Group companies are the largest ICT companies in the world. They employ 241, 000 workers. The NTT Group is also the world’s largest brand in data hosting that connects more than 240 centres worldwide. Their wholly owned marine fibre-optic cable network makes up top 3 IP backbone.
Photos: Linkevičius meets with representatives of JTB.
